The reigning king of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, recently revealed a new “hobby” to De Telegraaf, a Dutch newspaper. He said that for the last 20 or so years, he had been a pilot for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. He continued on to say that it wasn’t just every once in a while, he co-piloted regularly for the airline company and then had previously co-piloted for Martinair, another Dutch airline.
The King revealed that co-piloting had somehow become a de-stresser in his life. He did the flights twice a month and it later helped him with his monarch position. Decompressing form the burdens of his everyday life has helped him tremendously in making decisions that he believes will best benefit his people. He revealed that that co-piloting helped him learn how to concentrate when he said, “You have an aircraft, passengers and crew. You have responsibility for them. You can’t take your problems from the ground into the skies. You can completely disengage and concentrate on something else. That, for me, is the most relaxing part of flying.”
Since the interview it has been reported that the King not only flew commercial flights. He worked as a volunteer pilot in Kenya for the AMREF, The African Medical and Research Foundation which is a non-governmental organization founded and based in Africa, and for the Kenya Wildlife Service. He had started flying as a student in the 80’s, before he had officially become a monarch and taken the throne.
The weirdest part is that barely any of his passengers ever recognized him. He walked through many airports and barely anybody knew of his kingly status. He has succeeded to keep a low rep by not saying his name while making flight announcements, or if he did, he knew that not many people were listening anyway. He later revealed in the same interview that before 9/11 the cockpit doors had been open so that the passengers could see him but since the terrorist attacks the doors are closed for safety.
It is almost crazy to believe that such an important monarch could take time out of his schedule to fly but, as history shows, the Dutch king is not the only one to have experience in piloting. England’s Prince of Wales and husband to Diana, Charles was a Royal Air Force pilot, as well as his sons William and Harry who flew military helicopters.
